Author's Note: Still sick. :-(

I've been having some problems with abuse on some of the other websites. So I think I'll post this up here and maybe on one other place, and then wait to post it elsewhere.

Thank you to those who sent me private messages that made me feel better during this. It's not fun getting abuse on a website that refuses to moderate correctly.

Enjoy the chapter!

1.2 million years ago…

Ace couldn't quite believe it.

"A travel agency took over the entire galaxy?!" she cried. "That's mad!"

"It's the truth," Prosemo replied. "It seems so implausible. But I saw enough evidence to convince me… that was what happened."

Prosemo broke down coughing, and Ace poured him some more tea from the Doctor's thermos. He drank it, gratefully.

"The travel technology that Irkoli had developed was amazingly fast, Ace," the Doctor explained to her. "So fast, it could make all the difference in a massive war."

"Instantaneous troop movements!" Ace worked out. "I get it."

"Precisely!" the Doctor agreed. "That's why all those planets initially signed up." He folded his hands against his umbrella, sitting back in his chair. "But as time passed, the travel technology became popular with the masses. It changed the way normal people lived — and the way they thought about themselves and the rest of the galaxy. Suddenly, people didn't want to fight, anymore."

"It… huh?"

"Think about it," said the Doctor, waving his hand in the air. "If I live on the planet Hulvor, but commute to work on the planet Wyxi, and make friends with people who are commuting in from Oiro and Pertup — I'm not going to want to start a gigantic war with Oiro, Pertup, or Wyxi, am I? They're my friends. My neighbors. It'd be like starting a war in my own backyard."

Ace thought back to her travels, and all the various planets she'd seen where people had started a war in their own backyards.

Looked at the Doctor, a little skeptically.

"Well, in theory, anyways," the Doctor admitted. "In practice… there are still a lot of planets out there willing to press the button and release Armageddon. Even now."

"And the only thing stopping them…" Ace started.

"…is the Irkoli Empire," the Doctor agreed. "And the stability and technology that Empire provides. Start a war, and your world would lose all the perks of being in the Irkoli Empire. And the rest of the Empire would unite against you and crush you, in an instant."

Oh.

"But if the Irkoli Empire doesn't seem like a stable or safe bet for all those planets," Ace muttered, "then everyone will become skeptical and pull out, all at once. Everything will fall apart. And war will break out, across the galaxy." She thought back to the political situation she'd seen, on Earth, in the 80's. The Cold War. Mutually assured destruction. "No wonder the police are so desperate to stop a rebellion."

Present Day…

Jack, inside Seo's mind, kept watching her memories. As Seo rushed around, inside of Oliver, redirecting her ship back to the Powerhouse Planets.

"The Irkoli Empire was a corporation that expanded too fast," Seo explained. She shoved down a lever. "There wasn't enough energy to power their travel technology, across so many worlds. So they found this!"

Slammed the ship into materialization, so that the sun orbiting the black hole appeared across the windows of her ship.

Circled by those Powerhouse Worlds.

"And set up the Powerhouse Worlds," Seo continued, "to siphon off its power."

Jack could see Prosemo shaking with anger, over the injustice that had been done to his own world.

"I don't care if the Outer Worlds are peaceful," Prosemo insisted. "We're still being oppressed and downtrodden! How do you explain that?"

Seo sighed.

Jack could feel her mind racing, trying to find a way to explain all that she knew.

"The Irkoli Empire began as a corporation," Seo told Prosemo. "Over time, it morphed into a political entity. But it's still got the mindset of a corporation."

Prosemo crossed his arms.

Eyes hard.

"Which means," Seo told him, "that even when they were successful, had access to all the power they could want and had incorporated the entire galaxy into their Empire, they still had two basic problems."

"Being oppressive, stuck-up biggots?" Prosemo guessed.

Seo shook her head. "Poor people who couldn't afford to buy Irkoli's services," she corrected, "and… a lack of cheap labor to harvest the energy they needed to keep the transit systems working."

"So?" said Prosemo.

"So they solved both problems at once," said Seo, dematerializing her ship, and re-materializing back on the planet Trianxyl. In Prosemo's present. "That's why you're all here. Treated the way you are."

"Treated like slaves!" Prosemo shouted. Shoved a finger in her face. "You can't possibly condone that!"

Seo didn't flinch away from him.

"I don't," she told him. Opening the doors to her ship. "In fact, I'm going to make sure I fix it. Without plunging this galaxy into war."

1.2 million years ago…

"But how did these Powerhouse Planets get like this?" Ace asked the Doctor.

"The Irkoli Empire was a corporation, expanding," Prosemo explained. "They needed the poor people gone. And they needed cheap labor."

"So they discovered they could solve two problems at once," the Doctor said, taking up the story. "'Send us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free… and we'll employ them. A new and better life, on the Powerhouse Worlds.'"

"It's why the Empire runs the Powerhouse Worlds differently than it runs any of the others," said Prosemo. "The Powerhouse Worlds are owned by Irkoli. They were created by Irkoli. Every ounce of air we breathe or food we eat is shipped in by Irkoli. Every pound of rock we walk on was placed by Irkoli. They own us, and there's nothing we can do about it."

"You could fight," said Ace, without thinking.

Then paused.

Her face falling, as she ran through the implications of this, in her mind.

"Except if you did, then the Empire wouldn't have any way to get the power to keep its technology running," said Ace. "The Outer Worlds would pull out of the Irkoli Empire, wars would break out. And everyone would die."

"That's what the Great Warrior said," Prosemo agreed. "But… she said there was a better way."

The Doctor looked away, his voice a deep growl. "I'll bet she did."

"She said the problem… was a lack of understanding of black hole technologies," Prosemo explained. "The Empire did its best, but they didn't really understand what they were doing, when they set up the Powerhouse Worlds. The technology installed here can't cope with the load, itself. That's why the Empire needs people — and works them to death. Because they can't get their automated systems to handle it correctly."

"So she wanted access to the Power Generation Plant," the Doctor guessed.

Prosemo nodded. "And spoke up to the Empire, in our defense. Blackmailed the government officials on the Wolpakst Ship into listening — to her. And to the Forgotten."

"The Speaker for the Forgotten," the Doctor muttered. His eyes guarded. "Yes…"

Ace noticed something was up with him. Grimaced, a little. "Doctor?"

"And the Empire let her in?" the Doctor asked, ignoring Ace. "Where did she go? What systems was she most interested in tweaking?"

Prosemo hesitated.

Didn't answer the Doctor's questions.

"She would have succeeded," Prosemo said, instead. "I was there. I saw what she was doing! But she never finished making her alterations. The Empire…"

He stopped.

Trying to stifle the emotions of pain and grief he still felt.

"She was smart," said Prosemo. "Brilliant, in fact. The Empire saw that. Concocted some rumor about how she'd murdered a group of unknown government officials. The Outer Worlds put pressure on the Empire to make a move against her — and keep the status quo."

"So the Empire invented Stasis Technology," the Doctor concluded. "To trap their greatest enemy."

A look of utter horror sprung up in Prosemo's eyes, as he remembered.

And for a moment, he looked… hopelessly young.

"Stasis technology," Ace repeated. Remembering what she'd learned, during her interrogation. "Except… it's not 'stasis'. It kills."

The Doctor tucked his umbrella under his arm. "Yes —fatal and thoroughly irreversible," he replied. "Once you are in stasis, you can never wake up. I'm surprised you didn't read about its effects in that book of yours."

Ace shifted, uneasily. "Yeah, well… I skipped the boring bits. Got straight to the blowing-things-up bits."

"I was there," Prosemo whispered. "I watched it happen. The Great Warrior just… stopped. Frozen in place, unaware of the world around her. I tried to wake her up. I tried to get her to move again. It… was how they caught me."

The Doctor didn't seem to extend any sympathy towards Prosemo. His face twitched, as if something were on his mind.

Something very unpleasant.

"Professor," said Ace. "Those interrogators said they wanted to revive the Great Warrior. If they were so threatened by her, then why would they want to revive…?"

"Because of her legacy," the Doctor said. "What she left behind."

Prosemo said nothing.

Looked away from the Doctor's hard stare.

"So… she did leave behind something to wipe out the Empire!" Ace cried. "That's why they're all so scared, because there's some bomb or something, poised and ready…"

"Not a bomb," the Doctor said. "Oh, that's what the rebels these days think. But he knows the truth." His eyes narrowed on Prosemo. His voice dark. "Don't you, Prosemo?"

Prosemo didn't answer.

"Truth is — no one knows what she did when she altered your Power Generation Plant," said the Doctor. "No one knows how far she got, or what would have happened if she finished. Anyone who knew her plans was shot or killed in the ensuing uprising against the Empire. Everyone… except for you."

Still, no answer from Prosemo.

"You were there," the Doctor accused. "You saw every system she touched. She told you what she was planning. But she didn't finish — which means the systems have become unstable, as a result. And are becoming more unstable, every year. This whole thing could break down at any moment — and only you know how to put it right."

Prosemo remained silent.

Ace remembered what the interrogators had said — that Prosemo's silence was placing everyone's lives in danger.

And realized, suddenly, what they'd meant.

"You mean this whole planet could blow up?!" Ace cried.

"All the Powerhouse Planets could," the Doctor said, stepping back. "At any time."

Which must be why the interrogators were so desperate to revive the Great Warrior. Because they needed someone to complete the work that she'd left half-done.

"But… if they knew her repairs would be unstable, left half-done," Ace said, "then why did they kill the Great Warrior in the first…?"

"Because when they first developed stasis technology, they assumed it could go both ways," the Doctor said, waving the question away, irritated. "They thought they'd just wake up their Great Warrior when they had the upper hand, and force her to undo what she'd done. But they were wrong. They can't ever get her back." He leaned further over his umbrella, voice getting lower and more dangerous. "The only one left who can save these worlds is you — Prosemo."

Prosemo cowered.

"And you've said nothing," the Doctor growled.

Ace saw the pain and terror on Prosemo's face. Felt for him. "Professor," Ace insisted, "he watched them kill his friend. Of course he felt upset and bitter, after…"

"And is that any reason," the Doctor shouted, "to put billions of innocent lives at risk?!"

"Doctor—" Ace tried, again.

The Doctor pointed at the sky outside. "One of the most fundamentally unstable points in the universe. Held in the balance by technology that's been half-changed around, turned unstable and volatile itself!"

"They shouldn't have stopped her," Prosemo muttered, a little bitterly. "They should have let her finish. They deserve everything they get."

"Oh, yes — anything to give your Speaker her perfect galaxy," the Doctor said, his voice icy.

Prosemo tried to jump to his feet in outrage, at this. But didn't quite manage it. Had to catch himself on the far wall, to stop himself falling. "That's… unfair," Prosemo protested, leaning heavily against the wall, struggling to catch his breath. "She never treated herself like royalty. She told us—"

"Precisely what you wanted to hear," said the Doctor. "Twisted everyone around her little finger. And I'm sure it was all extremely convincing, wasn't it? You scarcely even knew what you were doing." He advanced on Prosemo, glaring right in the man's face. "But think what your Speaker might have gained from controlling this."

He pointed, once again, at the sky.

"Harnessed correctly, this kind of energy could do almost anything," the Doctor told Prosemo. "And in her hands, it would have. The Speaker for the Forgotten, indeed." He said the title as if it were a bad taste in his mouth.

Ace wasn't sure how to react to this.

Sure, she could understand why the Doctor was angry with Prosemo. Maybe he even deserved it, a little.

But… why attack the Great Warrior? From what Ace had heard… the Great Warrior had been trying to help those on the Powerhouse Planets, without plunging the Outer Worlds into war.

"Doctor, what's the matter with…?" Ace started.

The Doctor ignored her.

"You're very lucky," the Doctor told Prosemo, "that I showed up to fix your little problem." He raised up his sonic screwdriver. "Because I do know how to fix those systems. And unlike the Speaker, I have your best interests at heart." His voice dropped. "Now what building did she go into?"

Prosemo hesitated.

"What building," the Doctor repeated, turning Prosemo's face to look right into his eyes, "did she go into?!"

In a small voice, Prosemo said, "Fifty Four A."

The Doctor straightened. "Thank you," he said. Turned around, marching out the back-door of the office building. "Ace, stay with him. Keep him out of trouble." His voice lowered into a simmering anger. "I'll be back for him when I'm finished."

Then the Doctor left.